Staging Area: A Barn Raising in Two Parts (Part Two)

Photo Credit: Erin Besler, Staging Area: A Barn Raising in Two Parts (Part Two), 2025. Photo: Logan Jackson. Courtesy of Art Omi.

Join us for a public barn raising in Art Omi’s Sculpture & Architecture Park as part of Staging Area: A Barn Raising in Two Parts (Part Two). This collaborative event—presented in partnership with Art Omi and Build Hudson —invites the public to take part in the hands-on construction of a new installation designed by Erin Besler, Assistant Professor of Architecture.

Few structures have been as intensely labored over as the barn. From community raising weekends and feminist pedagogical projects to back-to-the land conversions and acts of preservation, across the rural United States barns are sites where commonly held distinctions break down: between amateur participants and expert practitioners, nature and culture, individuals and collectives, manual trades and intellectual pursuits, and the discipline of architecture and the practice of building.

While American barns are often tied to romantic myths of isolation, self-sufficiency, and pragmatism, the collective efforts of barn raisings emphasize exchange, skill sharing, and more ubiquitous building practices. Here, catering kitchens, woodcraft workshops, and informal childcare unfold at the edges of building, weaving everyday life into construction. Staging Area takes place through an ongoing, layered program of events. You are invited to join in social gatherings, site-specific interventions, and creative activities, including raising suppers, barn model workshops, and lumber parades.

Staging Area: A Barn Raising in Two Parts is curated by Julia van den Hout, Art Omi Senior Architecture Curator with Guy Weltchek, Art Omi Curatorial Assistant.

Design Team: Ana Rico Rubio, Yohana Ansari-Thomas, Chandler Shan, Rob Williams, Mason Magemeneas, Aonor Washington, Nneoma Onyekwere, Shravan Arun, Tyler Gray, Emilio Olivas, Michael Adams and Axelle Karam.

Funded in part by Princeton University School of Architecture, the University Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Humanities Council, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Commissioned by Art Omi.